Troops In Iraq Plead For Support

(National Review Online)  This column was written by W. Thomas Smith, Jr..

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Last Thursday, hours after Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., proclaimed the Iraq War "lost," U.S. Navy Lt. Jason Nichols was e-mailing Michelle Malkin from his office in Baghdad with a message for Reid.

"Your [Reid's] words are killing us," Nichols writes. "Your statements make the Iraqis afraid to help us for fear we'll leave them unprotected in the future."

Earlier that day — before Reid's infamous declaration of defeat — I was on the phone with Nichols, who told me, 'We are winning," explained to me how he knows we are winning, why the troops actually doing the fighting continue to support the war effort, and what he and others are doing to get the facts in front of the American people.

Nichols, a Naval officer currently serving in Iraq, oversees a grassroots effort recently launched by a small group of active-duty servicemen and women hoping to communicate to Congress "the troops' desire to remain in Iraq" until the mission is complete.

The effort — AppealforCourage.org — has been collecting signatures for a petition that reads:

As an American currently serving my nation in uniform, I respectfully urge my political leaders in Congress to fully support our mission in Iraq and halt any calls for retreat. I also respectfully urge my political leaders to actively oppose media efforts, which embolden my enemy while demoralizing American support at home. The War in Iraq is a necessary and just effort to bring freedom to the Middle East and protect America from further attack.

The Opposition

AppealforCourage.org is also a counter-effort to antiwar AppealforRedress.org. The latter's petition reads:

As a patriotic American proud to serve the nation in uniform, I respectfully urge my political leaders in Congress to support the prompt withdrawal of all American military forces and bases from Iraq. Staying in Iraq will not work and is not worth the price. It is time for U.S. troops to come home.

As of this writing, AppealforCourage.org, has received 2,172 signatures. AppealforRedress.org, has received 1,855. It's not a lot of signatures for either group relative to the size of the U.S. armed forces. But as Nichols explains, "Appeal for Redress has received quite a bit more media exposure than Appeal for Courage, and we've exceeded their number of signatures in a third of the time it took them to collect theirs."

Appeal for Courage has been collecting signatures since mid-February 2007. Appeal for Redress has been gathering signatures since October 2006.

"They've also received quite a bit of funding," says Nichols. "They've hired a professional advertising group. They've appeared in a bunch of newspapers, and were featured on 60 Minutes."

He adds, "Redress is also paying for about four different caravans that drive around to bases, park outside, and get people to sign."

Not so for Appeal for Courage. "We're just word of mouth," says Nichols. "Most people in the military haven't heard of us."

Nichols's motivations to launch Appeal for Courage were based on five factors, the first of which was the existence of Appeal for Redress.

'Also, almost everybody I talk to in the military overwhelmingly supports our staying in Iraq until the job is done," he says. "And I wanted to give service members a chance to express their support for the mission. The disparity between what you see in the media and what military members say is pretty wide. Most of us in the military think we can win in Iraq, and most believe we are winning in Iraq."

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[knyghtwolf]

REASONS FOR WAR ON IRAQ:
WMD which turned out to be FALSE
Find & try Saddam Hussien - Mission accomplished
Iraq supposedly a Terrorist training camp - FALSE
Iraq involved in 9/11 - FALSE
Establish a supposed "Democracy" - never will happen, like us, they wish the rights to run their country as THEY see fit. If this is such a great idea, how come we are not invading Mexico and South America?
Millions and millions of dollars, OUR dollars, not the bush administrations, have been "lost" & "unaccounted for" - TRUE
So who is REALLY calling the shots on this major cluster - screw-up and will the REAL perpatrators be held accountable in the end? Stay tuned, its gonna get better and better.

[knyghtwolf]

What is NOT being addressed here is the fact that ONLY about 2 in 75 military personel are being addressed in this article. It amazes me how fast people switch sides when it suits them. We have NO business in Iraq, period....DOT. Continuation of this war is wrong in all senses. CBS is skewing the statistics on this to suit their agenda, I have friends that in this war and they are saying a completely different story than this one is portraying. Check your sources people, this article is a MOTHER lode of ***.

[lars008-2009]

Appeal for Redress
Sign this Appeal.
This site is an Appeal For Redress in support of our mission in Iraq.
An Appeal For Redress is an authorized means for active duty military to submit a grievance to Congress. It can be signed by Active Duty, Reserve, or National Guard military personnel.
It is authorized by DoD Directive 1325.6 and DoD Directive 7050.6.
The wording of the Appeal for Redress is:
As an American currently serving my nation in uniform, I respectfully urge my political leaders in Congress to fully support our mission in Iraq and halt any calls for retreat. I also respectfully urge my political leaders to actively oppose media efforts which embolden my enemy while demoralizing American support at home. The War in Iraq is a necessary and just effort to bring freedom to the Middle East and protect America from further attack.
If you are active duty, reservist or national guard, please Sign this Appeal.
Most service members fully support the war in Iraq and feel calls to retreat by Congress and attacks by our media on our conduct and mission act to motivate our enemy while demoralizing our support at home, directly increasing the threat we face and resulting in greater American casualties. This Appeal for Redress provides a way in which individual service members can appeal to Congress to fully support us and actively oppose media attacks on our mission and our morale.
This Appeal will be delivered to members of Congress.
http://www.appealforcourage.org/

[lars008-2009]

"Hussein has ... chosen to spend his money on building weapons of mass destruction and palaces for his cronies." -- Madeline Albright, Clinton Secretary of State, Nov. 10, 1999
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1584/is_9_10/ai_59021377

Adversarial Myopia
http://www.federalobserver.com/archive.php?aid=8570

[lars008-2009]

"Iraq is a long way from [here], but what happens there matters a great deal here. For the risks that the leaders of a rogue state will use nuclear, chemical or biological weapons against us or our allies is the greatest security threat we face." --Madeline Albright, Feb 18, 1998
http://www.fas.org/news/iraq/1998/02/20/98022006_tpo.html

"He will use those weapons of mass destruction again, as he has ten times since 1983." --Sandy Berger, Clinton National Security Adviser, Feb, 18, 1998
http://www.usatoday.com/news/index/iraq/iraq172.htm

"[W]e urge you, after consulting with Congress, and consistent with the U.S. Constitution and laws, to take necessary actions (including, if appropriate, air and missile strikes on suspect Iraqi sites) to respond effectively to the threat posed by Iraq's refusal to end its weapons of mass destruction programs." Letter to President Clinton, signed by: -- Democratic Senators Carl Levin, Tom Daschle, John Kerry, and others, Oct. 9, 1998

"Saddam Hussein has been engaged in the development of weapons of mass destruction technology which is a threat to countries in the region and he has made a mockery of the weapons inspection process." -Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D, CA), Dec. 16, 1998
http://www.house.gov/pelosi/priraq1.htm

[lars008-2009]

the war is legal

the resumption of hostilities was only a matter of time since iraq broke the ceasefire agreement.....

blame saddam for iraq%u2026%u2026. Even clintoon and the dems wanted the resumption of hostilities back in 1998

"Saddam Hussein has been engaged in the development of weapons of mass destruction technology which is a threat to countries in the region and he has made a mockery of the weapons inspection process." - Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D, CA), Dec. 16, 1998
http://www.house.gov/pelosi/priraq1.htm

"One way or the other, we are determined to deny Iraq the capacity to develop weapons of mass destruction and the missiles to deliver them. That is our bottom line." - President Clinton, Feb. 4, 1998
http://www.cnn.com/US/9802/04/us.un.iraq/

"If Saddam rejects peace and we have to use force, our purpose is clear. We want to seriously diminish the threat posed by Iraq's weapons of mass destruction program." - President Bill Clinton, Feb. 17, 1998
http://www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/1998/02/17/transcripts/clinton.iraq/

WASHINGTON (Feb. 18) -- In preparing the nation for a possible war with Iraq,
http://www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/1998/02/18/iraq.political.analysis/

[katg21]

We were attacked on 9/11 and it was the president's responsibility to contain the problem where ever it may be.
Posted by katg21 at 04:24 PM : Apr 24, 2007

But the problem was not in Iraq you fu*king moron.
Posted by rharrin1 at 07:43 AM : Apr 25, 2007

No sh*t jerk off!! Is that how ya want to talk to each other, fine! Do you actually think that Saddam wouldn't sell the WMD's that he DID have, and used on the curds, to terrorist groups? So you're idiotic mind believes that the job would have been finished with Afghanistan? You're the f*cking moron if you believe that. The president did what he thought was necessary at the time, remember being attacked on 9/11? Guess not! Get over it assho!e.

[superpatr898]

Bottom line is this - if Harry Reid was a Democratic Senator in 1780 he'd opt to go with Benedict Arnold, NOT George Washington.

If Harry Reid was a Democratic Senator in 1860 and 1861 he'd vote for Secession, and demand that Lincoln NOT free the Slaves. Something his buddy KKK Byrd would love him for, but where Steppin' Fetchit Obama, Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton and Charlie Rangel would remain clueless like the Belafonte Boys they really are (remember his inane comments about Colin Powell -they even more so apply to the victicrats)

Heck, in 1863 and 1864 Reid would rant for a separate peace with the Confederacy, even with Grant marching deep into Virginia and Sherman at the gates of Atlanta.

And just guess how Traitor Reid would have reacted to Pearl Harbor? After years of voting to keep the peacetime army on a scale comparable to Bulgaria or Argentina, he'd beg for a separate peace with Tojo and with Herr Hitler. He'd send his Jeannette Rankin - Ho Pelo - to Berlin to "service" Herr Hitler.

The American Fascists in 1941 and 1942 would have loved Harry Reid. Our servicemen fighting and dying in Europe, North Africa and in the Philippines certainly NEVER would.

[superpatr898]

tharrin,

you've demonstrated what a real bozo nazi you are. go back to playing with crayons, or better yet, go to the mosque and beg your friend Osama to let you live.

The bozos who spew lies about Bush and Cheney say nary a word about prune face reid or the 'ho Pelosi. Pelosi goes to a country that was responsible for the murder of 250 U.S. Marines, dons a Hajibi and nary a word from our so-called "servicemen" - exlax, bluestarbigot, skybozo, dillyson, mcvet, vet71 aka mcveigh69, or the rest. Reid, who never served a day thinks he's a brilliant general. And you clowns tolerate these traitors. Repeat - TRAITORS.

If they deny a volunteer army their rations, their weapons, their support - they are BETRAYING them and should be kicked out of congress. There is no room for stupidity, avarice, arrogance and cowardice - the traits of Reid, Pelosi, Murtha, Webb, McDermott, Cliton, and company.

Bozo Nazis, here's a book I suggest that you read, especially franklymoronic who keeps bleating about Iraq & AL Qaeda. It's called "The Looming Tower" by Lawrence Wright. Wright has described himself as a "Liberal" critical of Bush - BUT unlike Ho Pelo or Prune Face Traitor, he is HONEST enough to show how there were - and are ties between the Qaedists and those in other, differing Islamonazi groups. They are united, bozos - by their hate of America and Israel.

And your pathetic Democratic Party traitors just go and s$ck up to them. Read it if you dare - and if you can, clowns.

[bluestardad]

It is common knowledge that Iraqi units are infiltrated by all types of Insurgents, Terrorist, and Execution Death Squads members of Both Religions. The Sunni supported by Saudi Arabia who are killing most of American troops, and Shiite supported by Iran. Those people who support this Surge of Troops in Iraq are forcing American Soldiers to sleep with the enemy in small units exposing them to undue kidnap threat. Americans soldiers who are captured by these enemies are without mercy, tortured and mutilated beyond recognition by their captors. Still our political leadership is planning to send these Brave Men and Women in to this environment. Would those Neocons or Chicken Hawks that pushed so hard for America to go into this war like to volunteer to live with death squad members? If American proceeds with this deployment our troops will be kidnapped and America will see such beheadings, torture and captivity that have never been seen before on Cable, Internet, and National Television. If you support this surge in troops and the tactics it brings you are responsible for every one of these deaths. Be prepared to watch American men and women begging for their lives on television while they are decapitated.